Will catch the highlights tomorrow morning then - then wait for the crapshoot later in the night, not being funny, but you'd like to see the Braves have a good run, would be awesome to see Chipper go out after a world series bid!

with Darvish on the mound, at home.. it's gonna be a difficult test for the O's.
can't find any rosters posted yet.. it's gonna be interesting to see what kind of setup each team will go with

do you only carry 1 starter, 1 long man and the rest relievers?

do the Rangers bring back Ron Washington if they lose this game?

The advantage the Os have is the Rangers are in a BAD slump right now. I think they will pull it off, but the fact we're even in this situation shows how badly we have been playing the last several weeks.

Certainly looks like the Braves & Cards have loaded up with bench players for the 1 game situation, that's where MLB screwed up, they should have said "you MUST carry the roster to the LDS" cos it basically gives you a full bench for runners/pinch hitters!

Certainly looks like the Braves & Cards have loaded up with bench players for the 1 game situation, that's where MLB screwed up, they should have said "you MUST carry the roster to the LDS" cos it basically gives you a full bench for runners/pinch hitters!

Or the MLB could have just said, "wow, we're retarded, why did we ever even consider doing something this stupid?" A one game "playoff" only makes sense in a game with 16 regular season games. When you play 162 games, and the regular season is full of "series", why would you force a one-game winner-take-all against teams that aren't even tied?

It's called creating excitement, beside that fact there's no scope to play a 3 game series it would run the season far too long and massively hinder the WC team.

Already a bullshit call in the WC game - Sam Holbrook calling an infield fly rule out with the ball in shallow left field, the ball dropped a good 40ft off the dirt on the infield, Atlanta fans going mental & showering the field with all sorts of bottles & stuff, no way was that ever an infield fly rule in it's life, ump didn't even call it until it had dropped!

It's called creating excitement, beside that fact there's no scope to play a 3 game series it would run the season far too long and massively hinder the WC team.

In my opinion the current wild card format is an abortion because it's the better teams that have to stave off a single-game elimination. That's creating excitement for all the wrong reasons. Also running the season even longer is a red herring. There is literally nothing preventing the MLB from shortening the regular season to 144 games or so to allow a full extra round of posteason baseball.

This is how I would do it, I believe I've mentioned it before:

1) The MLB removes all regional divisions. The only splits remaining are the AL and NL.
2) The top 6 teams by W-L record in each league advance to the posteason, 12 teams in all.
3) The top 2 teams by W-L record earn a first round bye.
4) Every series will be a best of 7 using the current 2-3-2 home-away format.
5) Every round of the postseason gets reseeded by regular season W-L record.
6) The regular season is shortened to 144 games, allowing the season to start a week or two later and end earlier. This helps stave off inclement weather.

The lost gate money does not matter, it should be mostly recouped by better average attendance for most teams. All teams are profitable anyway thanks to TV contracts and the general health of the MLB. Postseason TV shares should also result in better revenues/profits for the teams.

One thing is certain, in this format the Rangers and Orioles wouldn't have to play a do-or-die game despite being 93-win teams. The Tigers wouldn't be in the postseason at all since they have the 7th best W-L record in the AL. In fact the O's and Rangers wouldn't even get a chance to meet until the ALCS, the way it should be.

There is perhaps room to recreate the AL/NL West/East, but in order to do so requires expansion to 32 teams total. In that case the top 3 teams in each West/East division would advance, with the top team getting a bye. I prefer the divisionless format myself.

In my opinion the current wild card format is an abortion because it's the better teams that have to stave off a single-game elimination. That's creating excitement for all the wrong reasons. Also running the season even longer is a red herring. There is literally nothing preventing the MLB from shortening the regular season to 144 games or so to allow a full extra round of posteason baseball.

This is how I would do it, I believe I've mentioned it before:

1) The MLB removes all regional divisions. The only splits remaining are the AL and NL.
2) The top 6 teams by W-L record in each league advance to the posteason, 12 teams in all.
3) The top 2 teams by W-L record earn a first round bye.
4) Every series will be a best of 7 using the current 2-3-2 home-away format.
5) Every round of the postseason gets reseeded by regular season W-L record.
6) The regular season is shortened to 144 games, allowing the season to start a week or two later and end earlier. This helps stave off inclement weather.

The lost gate money does not matter, it should be mostly recouped by better average attendance for most teams. All teams are profitable anyway thanks to TV contracts and the general health of the MLB. Postseason TV shares should also result in better revenues/profits for the teams.

One thing is certain, in this format the Rangers and Orioles wouldn't have to play a do-or-die game despite being 93-win teams. The Tigers wouldn't be in the postseason at all since they have the 7th best W-L record in the AL. In fact the O's and Rangers wouldn't even get a chance to meet until the ALCS, the way it should be.

There is perhaps room to recreate the AL/NL West/East, but in order to do so requires expansion to 32 teams total. In that case the top 3 teams in each West/East division would advance, with the top team getting a bye. I prefer the divisionless format myself.

Yeah It sucks that one of the 4 best teams in the AL is going home tonight after 1 game (looking like my Rangers), but what can ya do

Yeah It sucks that one of the 4 best teams in the AL is going home tonight after 1 game (looking like my Rangers), but what can ya do

Fix the postseason with my suggestions. Even though the Rangers did everything possible to get into this awful situation, they don't really deserve this fate. Not when the 7th best Tigers are automatically in the ALDS.

Sorry, but they deserve it, failed to win their division, there is no excuse for that so they have no one to blame but themselves! What I will agree with you on though is the Tigers, sorry in the East that record is good enough for fourth, in the West it's good enough for fourth, they're being given a bye despite the fact there are SIX teams with better records than them all because they won a weak division! Ideally you would like to see 4 divisions in each league so the winner of each division goes to the playoffs, but that would as has been pointed out require expansion which won't happen, christ, it's taken them long enough to get both leagues to equal numbers!

Sorry, but they deserve it, failed to win their division, there is no excuse for that so they have no one to blame but themselves!

That's kind of a point of the wild card in sports though. Gives non-division winners a chance to play for a title. Which makes sense, because these sports tend to take each division winner, no matter the records. A team goes 8-8 in the NFL, they're in because they win their division? Wouldn't be fair if that 10-6 team couldn't get in because Wild Card didn't exist.

So now you have teams hoping for that Wild Card spot, and they think they got it. But instead, they have to play a single game against a team who they have a better record than. See the irony here? Wild Card was put in to make sure the teams with the better records get in, and then they lose to worse record teams because they're forced to play an unnecessary single game. Which, speaking of the NFL, would make more sense, given a 16-game season and the fact every single game actually counts. Not in the MLB, where teams don't go 150-12. Teams don't win every game. Which is fine, because they basically play a different quarterback every game. I like Kidsafe's idea of shortening the regular season a little, to extend the playoffs. Makes so much more sense than forcing a single game against a team you beat in the regular season.

I should point out I come from Scotland, where I come from we have a season & the team which was consistently better than the other teams in the league, wins the fucking league, there is no playoff, there is no standing around figuring shit out, best record = you win the league, period. (We have cup competitions on a playoff format) US sport is rarely about rewarding consistently good play, in every major sport in the US (inclusive of soccer) it is entirely possible that a team could go perfect through the entire regular season yet get done in at the playoffs and walk away without winning the championship - that in it's own right to some eyes (including my own) is madness, so there's a problem in it's own right.

The wildcard in baseball however IS about providing teams who have played well but not won their division a chance to take it all, but that doesn't mean it has to be easy - putting a premium on WINNING YOUR DIVISION as there is no need if you win your division to worry about the crapshoot of a 1 game scenario. Make no bones about it here, Texas dropped a THIRTEEN game lead to lose the division on the last day of the regular season to Oakland, Texas had more than enough shots to ensure a 1 game scenario wasn't needed, but they failed to execute. (The Yankees were almost in the same situation, but unlike Texas they pulled out wins when they had to)

The problem with making that series longer is simple though, if you make it longer it's reducing the benefit of winning the division as you'd need then to say 3 game wildcard series, that's an extra 3 days off where timing starts to go, where nerves start to get the better of people as they're in a situation where this pressure is building for an extra 3 days before they can get at it. The aim for the play in game was to give an incentive to teams who maybe didn't feel like they had a shot at making the playoffs, but it wasn't to say "ok, so once you get there you'll have 3 games" - no, they knew it was 1 game, winner takes it all, you put your best guys on the field against their best guys and see who's better. Now it so happened this year that both wildcard teams had better records than Detroit who automatically got into the playoffs, but unlike Detroit, neither wildcard team, you guessed it, won their division - so that's the risk they run, every team in baseball knew it was a 1 game play-in, if you look at the AL matchup, both teams had a shot at winning their respective divisions, both could have done so during the last series, but both failed to convert.

You might not like 1 game scenarios after a 162 game regular season, but y'know what, it's the perfect mix of danger for not winning your division & reward for having a good record, no mess, no sidebar, just the best guys playing each other in a winner takes it all game - which as a neutral is fun to watch.

I should point out I come from Scotland, where I come from we have a season & the team which was consistently better than the other teams in the league, wins the fucking league, there is no playoff, there is no standing around figuring shit out, best record = you win the league, period. (We have cup competitions on a playoff format) US sport is rarely about rewarding consistently good play, in every major sport in the US (inclusive of soccer) it is entirely possible that a team could go perfect through the entire regular season yet get done in at the playoffs and walk away without winning the championship - that in it's own right to some eyes (including my own) is madness, so there's a problem in it's own right.

Imbalanced schedules and other external factors make it impossible for me to support a format that awards the championship by W-L record only. Imagine if the Nationals won 90 games in a row and then lost 72 in a row down the stretch due to a depleted roster, injuries and/or bad trades. The postseason or playoffs in other leagues is about rewarding teams that are statistically within a certain margin of error and seeing who can put together a run in 3-4 elimination rounds.

If you truly are the best team in the league, prove it by winning a few more games/series.

The same genius no doubt who's chopping & changing start times on a daily basis, the Yankees game tonight has now had THREE different first pitch times by my count - pick a time, stick to it (not counting inclement weather), profit.